One Year

 This month marks a year since we moved here.

I'm still struggling with this house! I have so many conflicting feelings about this place.

On the one hand, I'm grateful that we could move here. I don't think we could have gotten another rental place, not with 9 cats and no one to act as a guarantor. I know some companies act as a guarantor, but I think it would have been difficult to use them. At least here we don't have that problem, also having the cats here is alright.

I also know that if my mother-in-law were still alive, the kids wouldn't move here. They actually said they would rather be homeless than live with her. She passed away before we even thought of moving here.

But, even after a year, this house still doesn't feel like home!

I'm constantly trying to rearrange things, trying to make it feel right. 

The summer was really hard as we had only one working air conditioner, the one in my room! Cooking in 35 °C plus heat is really hard! Also, because the kitchen/dining area got too hot, we didn't spend time there; it's the only communal area of the house. Everyone spent time in their own rooms! At the old house, when everyone had a day off from work, we would eat lunch together, then sit and talk, have a laugh and make plans. Some days, we would spend a good hour or more just being together. Having the air conditioner on made it easy to hang out together. Now, even on days off, we don't hang out together. More now the weather has cooled down, but the summer was just eat and go!

This house is impossible to keep clean! I'm even having to sweep the ceilings! There is dust everywhere. I sweep, dust, and wipe down things every day. And it's not just the cats, though they don't help! There are ledges around the walls, top and bottom, that are dust traps! I've had dust build up on my curtains. The winter adds extra work as the condensation on the windows is incredible! I have to wipe down the windows two or three times a day. If I don't, then there is a pool of water on the floor! 

The bathroom goes mouldy in one day! The cleaner I use to get rid of the mould is used up in about a week, in the other house it would last for a month! If the bathroom isn't sprayed every day, it gets bad. The bathroom is too big, the bathtub is in one corner, and the shower is on the opposite wall. The rest of the room is dead space. The tiles on the floor broke just a year after being laid, but have never been fixed. I have to put special mats down; otherwise, it's easy to cut your feet on the rough edges of the tiles! I thought of fixing them, but I'm going to wait until I can change the whole bathroom!

Then there is the garden! It's overwhelming. I'm trying to pull weeds, cut down some of the bushes and trees, but I don't have that much energy. Everyone else is so busy with work, they do what they can, but the garden needs to be seen to almost every day to try and make it look nice!

When I was younger, I used to think that by the time I'm in my 60s, I'd be settled, that even if I was still working, I would have some time for myself. I thought I would have money to travel a bit, to find hobbies that I could enjoy. Looks like that kind of life is a dream! 

I really hope that I can make some money to do some renovations in the house. The kitchen, bathroom and toilet are priorities. There are other things I would love to do, but not as important. 

Even if I never really love this house, this is it! I keep looking at houses for sale in the area where we used to live, but I'll never have the money to move, so I have to make the most of this place!

At least I have a nice view from my window. The autumn leaves are late this year; they are just starting to turn! I noticed this lovely tree outside my window today!

Lovely colours

It's hard to see in the photo, but the colour is very vibrant!

I'm going to make a cup of tea, get a book and spend time reading and looking at this beautiful tree!